Spirit Realm

“Ding ling ling! Bzz… bzz bzz…”

A series of low chimes burst forth from the tokens in the possession of Luo Chen, Song Tingyu, Du Xiangyang, and the others. It jolted everyone from their meditative process of using spirit stones to recover their energy, promptly making everyone tense up.

“Someone’s approaching us!” Du Xiangyang shouted, touching a token at his waist. “They’re moving fast, but I can’t tell who they are!”

“It has to be either the eastern barbarians or Ye Yihao and the others,” Luo Chen said grimly. “Who else could it be?”

As of that moment, all of them were hundreds of meters away from Qin Lie.

Cold energy in the form of dense white mist swirled around his location.

A thick layer of ice encased his body, and on top of that, heaps of snow covered him.

At a glance, he resembled the white and scarlet barbarians that had frozen to death. There weren’t any clear indications that he was alive.

But none of his companions dared to go near him.

“I hope it isn’t the eastern barbarians,” Xue Moyan said, her expression grave.

“I’ll go investigate.” Song Tingyu got to her feet, walked to the edge of the mountain peak, and peered down at the surrounding area.

The tokens of the nine great Silver rank powers had a certain range. Since their tokens had sounded off, it meant that other people with tokens were currently within fifty kilometers of them.

If a person looked down at an area from a high vantage point, it would be very easy to see even the smallest of movements. However, whoever was out there had deliberately concealed their approach. They moved through the forest below, obscured by the icy foliage and thick snow, preventing Song Tingyu from locking on to them.

After a while, Song Tingyu shook her head in frustration. “I can’t see anyone.”

“There’s no point in looking,” Xie Jingxuan said calmly. “The people approaching us belong to Black Voodoo Cult.”

“How can you be so sure?” Luo Chen asked, shocked but skeptical.

“The Terminator Sect tokens haven’t reacted strongly.” Xie Jingxuan paused for a brief moment, then continued, “The people of Black Voodoo Cult haven’t killed many Terminator Sect martial practitioners. The eastern barbarians, on the other hand…

“When we first encountered the eastern barbarians, Chu Li’s Terminator Sect token had a strong reaction. This means that they’ve killed numerous Terminator Sect martial practitioners and taken their tokens.”

“That does seem to be the case,” Du Xiangyang said, checking his own tokens and realizing she was right.

“Black Voodoo Cult, huh…” Song Tingyu pursed her lips in contemplation. A moment later, her face was serene as she said, “Maybe we should meet with them and the two other forces.”

Du Xiangyang and Luo Chen’s faces twisted in surprise.

Xue Moyan and Pan Qianqian only frowned at the suggestion.

Du Xiangyang sighed, then grimaced. “There could be hundreds of black, scarlet, and white barbarians gathered in the Land of Buried Gods. As we are now, even if we manage to find its location, we shouldn’t enter it recklessly.”

“Black Voodoo Cult, the three great families, Celestial Artifact Sect, and Ten Thousand Beast Mountain together form a powerful force. I’m afraid they might not be willing to work with us.” Song Tingyu’s beautiful eyes flashed.

“Shall we wait for them to arrive and see what they have to say?” Du Xiangyang suggested.

“If they harbor malicious intent, how are we going to deal with them?” Pan Qianqian asked. “Huang Zhuli is ruthlessly cunning and definitely isn’t easy to handle.”

“We aren’t pushovers either!” Luo Chen snorted.

“They have Ye Yihao, Huang Zhuli, Feng Yiyou, Yu Men, and the heirs of the three great families,” Xue Moyan said with a frown. “Their overall offensive capabilities… surpass ours.”

Everyone inadvertently looked at Qin Lie.

Qin Lie was the only reason they had a clear advantage when fighting others in the Forbidden Land of Thunder.

Now, however…

Qin Lie was in no condition to fight properly, and they had lost contact with Chu Li. As they were now, they were clearly weaker than the combined group of the three forces.

If both sides actually fought, there was a good chance that Qin Lie’s group would end up being the weaker side and even dying.

“Now isn’t a good time to face them!” Du Xiangyang exclaimed, quickly regaining his wits.

Although she originally wanted to try and negotiate with the other group, Song Tingyu nodded decisively and said, “Shall we go hide?”

“What about Qin Lie?” Xie Jingxuan interrupted.

Everyone froze.

Qin Lie was still covered in a thick layer of ice and heaps of snow.

His location still radiated a white mist of bone-chilling cold that all of them stayed away from.

If they wanted to go and hide, how would they bring Qin Lie with them?

“In spite of our desire to avoid Black Voodoo Cult and the other forces… considering Qin Lie’s condition, I don’t think we have a choice.” Du Xiangyang grimaced.

The rest of the group went quiet, then nodded in helpless understanding. It was clear that the other three forces were approaching them, but they couldn’t do anything but silently wait.

This wait lasted two hours.

“Crunch… crunch… crunch…!”

The sound of feet plodding through dense snow eventually rang out in the distance, gradually growing nearer. Everyone in Qin Lie’s group felt their nerves stand on end as they focused their attention in the direction of the sound.

Soon enough, Huang Zhuli and Ye Yihao appeared leading Black Voodoo Cult martial practitioners. And, as expected, the familiar faces of Feng Yiyou and Yu Men were there as well.

“Just as we suspected…” Su Yan smiled coldly. “It’s you!”

“We’ve known you were coming here for quite some time now!” Song Tingyu retorted.

The distance between both sides rapidly decreased until Huang Zhuli, Ye Yihao, and the rest of their group were standing right in front of Qin Lie’s group.

“Where is Qin Lie?! Hm?!” Ye Yihao shouted, his eyes searching the area. Once he found what he was looking for, he laughed. “Hah! Hahahah! He froze to death? How ironic! That’s hilarious!”

Behind Song Tingyu, Du Xiangyang, and the others, Qin Lie sat on the floor, encased in ice and shrouded in cold white mist.

His looked exactly the same as the scarlet and white barbarians that had frozen to death.

“Hahaahahahaha!” Yu Men laughed madly. “Qin Lie was a fierce dragon in the Forbidden Land of Thunder. I never would have expected him to become a frozen worm upon entering the Forbidden Land of Ice!

“Qin Lie was a martial practitioner that has just entered the middle stage of the Netherpassage Realm! Not only was his realm not strong enough, his spirit energy was neither pure nor abundant!” Feng Yiyou said disdainfully. “I don’t know what thunder and lightning spirit art he cultivated that allowed him to manipulate the thunder and lightning of the Forbidden Land of Thunder, but in the Forbidden Land of Ice… Here, he isn’t even worth mentioning!”

“Qin Lie froze to death? Just like that? Tsk tsk! That… that really is funny!” Su Yan said, glee on her face as she clearly felt a sense of schadenfreude. “I almost thought he would end up being somebody in the future. I didn’t expect that he wouldn’t be able to endure just this much! As expected, poor little martial practitioners from lower level continents don’t amount to much!”

“And he dreamed of returning Blood Fiend Sect to its former glory? I hadn’t thought that he’d freeze to death right after leaving the Forbidden Land of Thunder!” Xiahou Yuan said with a cold smirk.

Upon seeing Qin Lie encased in ice and covered in heaps of snow, the martial practitioners of Black Voodoo Cult, the three great families, Celestial Artifact Sect, and Ten Thousand Beast Mountain heaved a collective sigh of relief.

All of these people were extremely wary of Qin Lie for some reason. This boy of unknown origins had too many secrets that they couldn’t uncover.

On the way over here, everyone came to the consensus that they needed to attack Qin Lie first and prevent him from doing anything.

They considered him their number one enemy!

However, they hadn’t expected Qin Lie, the person they had placed so much importance on, to be encased in ice like a frozen corpse.

Although this discovery disappointed them, it also made them rejoice.

“Enough talk,” Ye Yihao said after he finished laughing, his expression becoming cold and murderous. “Give us the Pure Soul Springs and we’ll let you leave, simple as that.”

“Scarlet, white, and black barbarians are here in the Forbidden Land of Ice. Any battle that takes place here will expend huge amounts of spirit energy,” Huang Zhuli said calmly, her expression cold and dark. “There’s no need for such a wasteful… diversion. We don’t want to fight you. As long as you give us the Pure Soul Springs and the Demon Sealing Tombstone, we’ll be on our way!”

Neither Yu Men nor Feng Yiyou spoke, but their vicious gazes showed that they had clearly reached an agreement with Black Voodoo Cult.

“We didn’t manage to get any of the Pure Soul Springs,” Du Xiangyang said with a grimace, spreading his arms. “We waited here for you because we hope to join forces with you in the Forbidden Land of Ice and fight the eastern barbarians together.”

“There are eastern barbarians here in the Forbidden Land of Ice. They are many, they are united, and they will do everything they can to hunt all of us down,” Song Tingyu said harshly. “It doesn’t matter if it’s you or us, escape will be difficult for either side if they encounter the eastern barbarians with just their own people. We won’t be able to defeat the eastern barbarians like that. Even if we did know the location of the Land of Buried Gods… divided as we are now, we wouldn’t gain a thing…”

As soon as Song Tingyu mentioned the eastern barbarians, ugly expressions appeared on the faces of Ye Yihao, Feng Yiyou, and Yu Men. They lowered their heads in silence.

Picking up on this, Song Tingyu changed the direction of her argument. “I see that you’ve suffered significant losses. More than a dozen of you are missing. Did they… fall at the hands of the eastern barbarians?”

Their expressions became even uglier.

“As long as you move about in the Forbidden Land of Ice, as long as you’re in the Graveyard of Gods, the eastern barbarians will never stop their pursuit!” Song Tingyu exclaimed, raising her voice. Then she took a deep breath and said, “Think about it. Divided, we are weak. Together, we’d be stronger.”

Many people of the three forces were silent. Their eyes clearly showed that Song Tingyu’s words had moved them.

Huang Zhuli, however, smiled coldly and said, “We might be able to work together against the eastern barbarians, but… before any of that, we want three of the Pure Soul Springs! Just half of the haul! That’s not such an outrageous demand, right?

The moment they heard the Pure Soul Springs come up in the negotiations, greedy light shone from the eyes of every person that Song Tingyu had almost managed to convince. All of them started to shout.

“Right! The Pure Soul Springs!”

“There are six of them! Give us half!”

“We’ll only consider cooperating with you after you share them with us!”

“We only want three of the Pure Soul Springs,” Ye Yihao said impatiently. “That’s quite generous of us, don’t you think?”

“No, we can’t even give you one Pure Soul Spring.” Du Xiangyang grimaced, spreading his arms once again. “Because we didn’t get any of them from the Forbidden Land of Thunder!”

“We encountered Sen Ye on the way here! He ambushed us multiple times and was unusually angry. He told us that you were the last ones to leave the thunder lagoon and that, not long after you left, it exploded!” Ye Yihao’s sinister eyes flashed with cold light. “He said that, not only did he not get any of the Pure Souls Springs, you had them! And I don’t think he lied. You have the six Pure Soul Springs, and we only want three. If you won’t agree to this, don’t blame us for what we may do!”

The moment Ye Yihao finished speaking, a voice rang out. Qin Lie, who they thought had already been frozen to death, suddenly spoke up from within the ice and snow.

“I have the Pure Soul Springs! They’re mine! So, what are you going to do now?”

“Crack… cra-crack!”

As Qin Lie spoke, the thick layer of ice encasing his body suddenly burst. Pieces of shattered ice fell to the ground.

In that instant, a bone-chilling essence spread from Qin Lie. It mingled with the cold white mist and gradually spread into the surroundings.

The expressions of Ye Yihao and the others twisted in shock.

……